Kotaku

An ex-Sony PR representative has publicly slammed his former company following a recent round of layoffs that left him out of work late last week.

It's hardly unusual for laid-off staffers to harbor ill will toward their former employers, but ex-PlayStation PR Will Powers voiced some striking criticism on Twitter this afternoon. He had harsh words for Sony, PlayStation, and many of the company's recent decisions.

"You have to wonder what the hell PlayStation was thinking laying off more than half of their software PR team going into the holiday season," Powers wrote. "In typical fashion they're sending titles out to die, because they have no PR support — [Little Big Planet Karting], Sports Champions 2, Wonderbook.

"Worst part it, the PR department was already under-staffed. I feel sorry for those that remain there, because their workload just doubled."

Powers, best known as the winner of season 1 of The Tester, Sony's reality show, also said scathing things about Sony's PlayStation Vita handheld.

"That being said, you have to question the priorities of the company as a whole - What the point of AdHoc multiplayer when no one has a Vita?"

In an earlier exchange, Powers wrote that "[Sony's] [priorities] aren't what they used to be. They've definitely [lost] touch with their audience."

Here's the full Twitter rant:

Powers said the producer of The Tester had been laid off as well. We've reached out to Sony to ask about the future of their reality show.

(Photo via PlayStation Blog)

You have to question the priorities of the company as a whole when they do stupid shit like creating a reality show about a bunch of jobless dweebs doing the physical challenges from Double Dare in order to become a video game tester.

This can't be good for the future of his career.

Mixed bag. He's obviously heavily upset and venting. Some of the stuff he said has weight - Sony's PR department could do with a boost, rather than cutbacks.

As a winner of The Tester though, I don't think it's too much of a loss.

Playstation Tester is such a great show! I hope they continue running it.

O.T. I think his attitude is likely the source of problems in companies as a whole these days... anyone can complain but while in that position within a company, what do you do to drive change from within? (A small secret there's no such thing as not having power. There is only the fear of responsibility.)

Sounds like SONY will be better off getting rid of him. Although I do agree that SONY has been a mess of a company for years now.

Maybe the current PR structure that Sony had was ineffective, paying people lots of money to get the message out for these games and those people not living up to the billing?

He makes a great point about Sony sending games out to die though. Theyve had tro ubles in the past with advertising and generating real buzz for their games this gen and firing half of their PR team going into holidays seems foolish

Especially considering current pre order trends. Sonys looking at a horrible 4th quarter in 1st party title sales

Well if Sony's advertising attempts the last few years say anything, their PR team sucked before the layoffs. These are the people in charge of coming up with new and unique ways to make Sony's products appeal to it's audience, and they have failed miserably for a while now. I hate the idea of so many people being jobless but maybe it is just time for new blood with fresh imaginations.

Shit I frequently think if Sony hired me as PR rep I could do a much better job than what they have recently been doing...

Sony's problems have not been a failure of marketing. If you haven't got a product with mass appeal, no amount of clever ads will save it.

(Goes for PS3, Vita, their TVs and their smartphones)

The Playstation PR team needs to get it together, look what happened to Twisted Metal and Starhawk not to mention the vita.